Saturday, May 30, 2009

As the Cleveland Cavaliers continue to fight for their playoff lives, there are all sorts of theories about why they find themselves trailing the Orlando Magic and what it all means. They range from the sublime to the ridiculous, as expected. But for the truly bizarre, it would be hard to beat the column by the New York Post’s Marc Berman, a hack writer with enough pseudo New York arrogance to make his employer’s proud.

In Berman’s world, a Cavs loss to the Magic all but puts LeBron James in New York. The theory is that once James surveys the wreckage of a season shortened before its time, he’ll understand that he was let down by a poor supporting cast that can’t improve and turn his sights toward the Knicks and a supporting cast that can only improve with James in the lineup.

Apparently, the difference between the Knicks remaining the dregs of the NBA and being competitive in the NBA’s eastern conference is James. Berman writes it as if it is a revelation. Put James on any team and they suddenly become competitive in the eastern conference. Like the E Street Band, James demonstrates night after night after night after night that he’s the league’s best player. Since he was 10 years old, James has made every team he’s been on better.

Berman finishes it off by saying that the Cleveland/Orlando series and the Cavs’ shortcomings that are being exposed is exactly the reason James would come to New York in 2010. What Berman doesn’t answer, because he can’t, is why James would want to put his fate in the hands of a moribund franchise run by fools. Cavs general manager Danny Ferry has proven to be an adept general manager. There are far more reasons to believe that Ferry can continue to effectively tinker with the Cavs roster until he gets it perfect than there are to believe that the Knicks could do likewise.

The NBA playoffs prove that while it may not take 12 guys to win the championship, it takes more than 5. The Knicks may have a player or two who would be useful in Cleveland, they don’t have a roster full. If they did they’d already be competitive. They aren’t. That’s another way of saying that on a straight line basis, the Cavs current roster with James beats the Knicks current roster with James, night after night after night after night.

Column’s like Berman’s have become a fixture in the national media. The underlying premise is that for reasons not fully articulated, the city of New York provides a better launching pad for James’ global empire. It’s a theory that makes no sense.

James already is one of the richest and most recognizable athletes in the world. His latest exploits in the NBA will only add to those riches and recognition. He has an armful of national and international endorsements all from the humble environs of his Bath, Ohio home. He has more than enough celebrity friends already to last him a lifetime. In short, there is nothing about playing in New York that can possibly make him any richer. The Knicks can’t pay him as much as the Cavs. But more importantly, he hasn’t missed out on any endorsement opportunities by playing in Cleveland. Those inclined to throw money at athletes to endorse products can just as easily find James in Cleveland as they can on the upper west side of Manhattan.

I can understand and appreciate the arrogance of New Yorkers. They live in one of the great cities in the world. But it isn’t the only place that fame and fortune is made. Tiger Woods has done pretty well for himself while operating out of Orlando, Florida. Michael Jordan didn’t need New York. Peyton Manning is doing pretty well for himself in Indianapolis. I don’t recall Wayne Gretzky needing New York as his base.

In terms of gaining access to international markets, New York isn’t the magic gateway. The billions to be made off the billions in China aren’t tied to James being in any particular location. The NBA does a pretty good job exploiting its top talents and for as long as James continues to play in Cleveland, the Cavs will be a feature game beamed to foreign markets.

While caught up in their own arrogance, the New York media hasn’t even bothered to consider James’ perspective. He is a Midwestern kid with Midwestern values. He’s notable for the incredible loyalty he shows to those with whom he’s close, and that includes his hometown. He gets more than his share of time in the spotlight venues but he still has the relative quiet of his compound that he can return to without it ever turning into the circus that would become his potential new home in New York. The New York media may not believe it, but being hassled by paparazzi 24/7, which is what James would be exposed to in New York, is not an advantage.

James could very well jump from Cleveland, but it will never be about the money. He’s got plenty of that. He wants to be the best to ever play the game and thus will put himself in the situation that best allows him to win championships. Whatever else New York may be, it will never be that.

**

Cleveland Browns owner Randy Lerner may come across as a disinterested and reluctant owner but maybe he’s just distracted. A story in Thursday’s Wall Street Journal shed some light on the England’s Premier Soccer league and the truckload of financial problems it’s having. Undoubtedly those troubles are having an impact on Lerner who owns the Aston Villa team in that league.

To American football fans who view team ownership through the prism of the NFL, the methods of the Premier League are an eye opener. For one, there are virtually no regulations on who can own a team nor are there any requirements that a new owner get the consent of the other owners in the league before acquiring his interest. That explains how Lerner acquired the Aston Villa team so easily and quickly. He bailed out the last owner that was swimming in debt.

But the far bigger problem for the league is the incredible debt undertaken by its teams. Unlike the NFL where owners can only leverage so much of their club through loans, English Premier League owners suffer under no such constraints. Not surprisingly, most of the playboy owners in that league are leveraged up to their eyeballs with other people’s money. Combine that with a lack of salary cap, the ability to trade freely without league intervention and the unfettered ability to sign free agents and suddenly teams have a capital structure that they can’t sustain during difficult economic times.

It’s not known how Lerner financed his multi-multi-million dollar purchase of Aston Villa but it probably wasn’t an all-cash deal. They rarely are. When he purchased the team in 2006, credit was easily obtainable. Whatever amount was financed it was done under the working assumption that revenues from the club would continue to climb and the economy would continue expand. As the Wall Street Journal details, that isn’t the case these days in the English Premier League any more than it is the case in the NFL.

None of this necessarily will have an impact on the Browns. But it is worth watching because of the whipsaw effect. If the economy doesn’t improve, both the Browns and Aston Villa can end up with a once well-heeled owner suddenly strapped for cash and taking on water. That won’t be good news for either franchise.

**

So Browns rookies and their agents are upset that head coach Eric Mangini gave them a voluntary opportunity to ride in a bus with him 10 hours to Hartford, Connecticut for his football camp/vanity project. Sure, it may have been voluntary in the same way your company picnic is voluntary, but hey, we all have to do what we have to do.

The only thing that struck me about the whole story, and maybe it has something to do with the tough economy and its impact on Lerner, was the fact that they have to truck this team up to New England in a Greyhound. If my recollection is correct, and I believe it is, the Browns have their own private aircraft, thanks to Mr. Lerner. They use it to take the team to away games. It’s kind of surprising it wasn’t made available to the rookies who “volunteered” to help a brother out. Maybe the price of jet fuel is prohibitively high these days. Hard to say.

Even if the company plane wasn’t available, Mangini surely is making enough to buy a few plane tickets for the help. He may be the head coach, but he apparently tosses around his own money like he’s still the ball boy.

**

The news that Josh Cribbs has essentially abandoned his holdout comes as no great surprise. Apparently Cribbs had a conversation with Mangini and whatever was said the message Cribbs received was that he’d be far better off getting his butt back on the field than in writing stream of conscious press releases about how he has to have a new contract now so that he’ll make enough money to last him the rest of his life.

It was an interesting little showdown between Cribbs and Mangini and Cribbs certainly blinked first and quickly. But that’s no reason to tweak Cribbs. As I said, it was an ill-conceived holdout orchestrated by a new agent who put his own interests ahead of the player he represented.

Cribbs doesn’t need to holdout to get a new contract. My guess is that Mangini told him to produce this year, in front of the new regime, and those sorts of things will take care of themselves sooner rather than later. That’s probably all Cribbs needed to hear anyway, especially since he is only two years into a multi-million dollar six-year contract.

Don’t get me wrong. I still think the Browns have at least an ethical and probably a legal obligation to live up to the promises that former general manager Phil Savage reportedly made to Cribbs. Just because Savage isn’t around now doesn’t mean he wasn’t authorized to make the promises then nor does it mean that the Browns can simply ignore them. But those kinds of battles are never good for the player to wage, even when he’s right. In the end, he’ll lose the war.

Still looming for Mangini is the continued holdout of kicker Phil Dawson. Unlike Cribbs, Dawson pretty much has said nothing about why he isn’t around. He’s letting his absence speak far more loudly. And while Dawson is certainly a valuable kicker, there are plenty of unemployed kickers available. None of them will be as good as Dawson, but the fact that they sit in the background is why a prolonged holdout by Dawson is unlikely. That situation will get resolved.

In all this, including the field trip to Hartford, you have to give Mangini some credit. None of the players have a shadow of doubt who’s in charge and they are snapping to accordingly. Of course, that goes for general manger George Kokinis as well, but that’s another subject for another day.

**

The Cleveland Indians finally parted ways with the most visible target of general manager Mark Shapiro’s bargain basement free agent signings, David Dellucci. He won’t be missed, but then again every team need’s a goat. Thus this week’s question to ponder: Who will fill that role for the Indians now that Dellucci is gone?

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

To those who counted on the Cleveland Cavaliers marching their way to a NBA title as some sort of inevitable climax to a special series, the series with the Orlando Magic provides an object lesson the cruelty of sports. Nothing is guaranteed, ever. Just because it may be your team’s turn doesn’t mean it is. Fate plays a part only in your mind.

The Cavaliers still have an opportunity to get to and win their first NBA championship this season, but they are in a rather sizable hole at the moment and they seem intent on trying to dig their way out when climbing would be much more effective. The reality though is that the Cavs and the Magic have now played 7 games this season and the Magic have won 5. The Magic simply are a better team. The question is why.

Going into this series, everyone expected it to be difficult. The Magic are the one team in the NBA that give the Cavs real match up problems. That the Cavs find themselves on the verge of having another season end too soon thus doesn’t so much surprise as disappoint. Man, does it disappoint.

But while Cavs fans quietly and begrudgingly lick their wounds they can rest assured in one thing: the best player in the NBA plays for them. No matter what the outcome of this NBA season, LeBron James has proven beyond any shadow of any doubt that he is not just the league’s MVP but its best player, no disrespect to Kobe Bryant intended.

The only problem for James is that his teammates have not found a way to step up their game the same way he has. Pick anyone from his supporting cast and you can find huge lapses in this series that run counter to the way he played the rest of the season.

Mo Williams, for example, hasn’t been awful in the Magic series, but he’s not been that missing link that he appeared to be all season. He’s played well in spurts and has played with some grit. But he’s also been surprisingly off far too often to be completely counted on. Offensively, his field goal percentage is down almost 15 points from his regular season average. Even more dramatic has been the drop-off in his 3 point shooting, where he’s hitting only 22% in the Magic series as compared to 43% in the regular season. Even his free throw percentage is suffering. He hit 91% in the regular season and his hitting only 85% in this series.

The same holds true for Delonte West. Both his field goal and three-point shooting are down in the Magic series vs. his regular season. Simply put he and Williams aren’t carrying their expected load.

But for my money, and that isn’t much, the biggest disappointment to this point has been Anderson Varejao. Maybe it was wishful thinking but this series seemed tailor made for Varejao’s coming out party in his free agent season. With everything to play for, I expected Varejao to simply give Dwight Howard fits. He hasn’t.

Varejao is playing almost exactly the same number of minutes in the playoff s generally and in the Magic series as he did during the regular season. While is rebound total overall is down 1 per game during the playoffs, it’s down almost 4 per game during this series. That’s a dramatic difference. Certainly it reflects the presence of Howard, but it also reflects a certain lack of effectiveness by Varejao. He’s demonstrating that for all the good he did this season, there are still significant moments when he disappears when faced with stiff competition.

James, on the other hand, isn’t just holding his own but is going beyond what he did in the regular season. That’s what the gifted do. They save their best for when it matters most. Whenever this season ends, James will have solidified his status as that once in a generation player that he surely is.

This isn’t to suggest that West, Williams or Varejao are choking away the series for the Cavs. Again, the Magic right now are a better team. But in part, maybe large part, the Magic are a better team precisely because West, Williams and Varejao haven’t yet made the full adjustment to life in the white hot spotlight.

For reasons that are as mysterious as they are unclear, the Magic’s players on the other hand have gone in the opposite direction. Despite a sometimes scattered approach, every one on that team has found a way to not only replicate what they’ve done in the regular season but to go beyond it.

Rashard Lewis, for example, hit 43% of his field goals in the regular season and 35% of his three-point attempts. Against the Cavs, he’s hitting 55% and 58%, respectively. Rafer Alston is doing likewise. During the regular season he hit 38% of his field goals and only 34% of his three-point attempts. Yet against the Cavs he’s at 45% and 43%, respectively. Same story for Mickael Pietrus. Both his field goal percentage and his three-point percentage are up dramatically in this series from what they were in the regular season.

No one doubts the pressure of these playoffs. It can do funny things to a person. It’s turning lesser talents like Alson and Pietrus into almost larger than life figures. Alston looks like the best shooter in the league. For his part, James can stand at the free throw line with literally no time remaining and make two free throws to send it into overtime and he looks almost casual doing it. West and Williams can get the same looks at the basket they’ve seen all season but can’t find a way to make the shots go down consistently.

When general manager Danny Ferry did his makeover of the team, it was done with the idea of winning titles not just respect. He’s done a good job of assembling talent but right now there are ingredients that are still missing. Despite his best intentions James is still carrying far too big of the load because the players he counted on during the regular season have been far less reliable when needed most. Who would blame him for passing up a pass he might otherwise have made?

This doesn’t mean that the Cavs need to undergo another makeover this next offseason, whenever it reminds. It just means that whatever improvement they make will be much more difficult. Williams and West, in particular, are extremely talented. The difference is mental and that’s the most difficult adjustment to make. Right now they are a like 2 handicap golfer trying to get to scratch. They have the tools but there are still more things they need to learn about course management and, by the way, they need to make a few more putts.

Whatever else this season holds for the Cavs, the one thing it’s held thus far has been the fans’ fascination. It’s the same fascination that Cleveland fans had for the 1995 and 1997 versions of the Indians. But those teams couldn’t win a title either for much the same reason this Cavs team is falling short at the moment. But if the Cavs do find a way to suddenly reverse course, there’s one thing in which to take great comfort: there will be no Jose Mesa-like meltdown. With James, the Cavs have the ultimate closer.

The Cleveland Browns just held what seems like their 12th voluntary camp and, as usual, it’s not all peaches and beans, as Archie Bunker would say.

Even when they shouldn’t be making news, they do and even when it should be good it isn’t. The contract squabble with Josh Cribbs took another somewhat unexpected turn with the release of Cribbs’ statement purportedly explaining his side of the impending contract standoff. In one sense it is dismissed as a negotiating ploy, which it clearly is. But in another sense it is something worth noting because it speaks to a loss of respect for an organization in whom so few have respect these days anyway.

Cribbs’ statement sent a cautionary message to Randy Lerner as well as head coach Eric Mangini and general manager George Kokinis that this organization better start standing for something or it will soon fall for anything. The initial, tough stance of Mangini and Lerner indicate it will be the latter and not the former.

If any member of the current Browns has credibility with the dwindling fan base, it’s Cribbs. He plays hard on every play and has always been willing to take on whatever assignment he’s been given, no matter how ridiculous. When Cribbs starts calling out the owner for treating him like “collateral damage” one has to wonder what impact that will have inside the locker room. Cribbs has essentially laid down the gauntlet by putting his own credibility on the line. He doesn’t seem worried that he’ll come out on the short end of that battle.

If the Browns don’t renegotiate the contract, you can only expect the situation to escalate and eventually resonate. Cribbs took a preemptive strike at Lerner et. al that either forces them to step up and do the right thing, which, according to Cribbs, is to pay him fairly relative to his unidentified peers, or stare him down and risk alienating the emotional center of the team thereby putting a serious crimp on Mangini’s plan to transform the franchise.

I can’t help wonder, though, why Cribbs has taken it to this level this soon. It’s May. The only leverage point he has right now is to withhold his services from workouts that aren’t contractually required. That’s hardly a stinging rebuke. No one will give this much thought until at least training camp. That’s when the stakes heighten for both sides. If fans of the Browns understand anything at this point it’s the outcome on the field of a team that doesn’t properly prepare.

The other thing I wonder about is the logic underlying Cribbs’ emotional statement. On many levels it doesn’t make sense. Let’s start with the premise. Cribbs is not a restricted free agent but a player one-third of the way through a contract he signed that pays him over $6 million. No one put a gun to his head to sign it. To now claim, as he does, that the contract is one-sided is disingenuous. As I recall, he was all smiles when he originally signed it.

But beyond just this simple point, Cribbs sets up the straw man argument that he shouldn’t be held accountable for breaching his contract since the owners breach contracts all the time. Really? Give me an example. Just one. The reality is that the collective bargaining agreement keeps the owners feet to the fire far more than it does to the players and every meritorious allegation of a breach of contract made by the players has been rectified in binding arbitration.

When it comes to not honoring contracts, it’s really the players that hold the inglorious history of walking away from their signed commitments. Every year there are handfuls of players in every sport that refuse to abide by their signed contracts in order to force their employers into newer more lucrative ones. I’m not making a value judgment on the tactic, just stating a fact.

Besides, it was Cribbs who decided to get into this business in the first place. He can portray himself a knave, but he’s well armed for the battle. His agent may have been born at night, but it wasn’t last night. It’s a fair fight.

Perhaps the biggest flaw in Cribbs’ logic is that he only has 10 or so years to make the most money he can to last him the rest of his life. Being a professional athlete does not carry the implied promise that when your playing career ends you can blissfully retire without ever having to work again. If Cribbs defies the odds and plays until he’s 35, why should he assume that his earnings during his career should be enough to sustain him until he’s 95? If this dispute really is about whether or not Cribbs shouldn’t have to enter real life in his mid-30s without ever having to seek gainful employment again, he’ll lose the fans as quick as he got them on his side.

It’s understandable that Cribbs is upset with what he feels is a lack of integrity by Browns’ management. But it’s not as if Cribbs shouldn’t have seen that coming. Cribbs has been with the team for four seasons and in that time he’s had a front row seat to all manner of dysfunction that has been the Browns. The only surprise in any of this is that Cribbs is surprised.

Ultimately, I blame the agent. Taking your case directly to the media is Negotiation 101 so the fact that Cribbs issued a statement isn’t a surprise. But J.R. Rickert needs to do a far better job of controlling his client than he’s done to this point or at least find a better voice through which he can articulate what may be a legitimate dispute.

**

Flying further under the radar screen than Cribbs is kicker Phil Dawson, also a no-show at Camp Mangini. Neither Dawson nor his agent are saying much about why he’s not there, but the sense is that it, too, is related to some contractual unhappiness.

The Dawson situation is harder to figure than Cribbs. Dawson certainly has been one of the more steady players in franchise history. Moreover as he ages his performance is getting better not deteriorating. For his career, he’s made 83% of field goals attempted. That places him 8th on the list of active kickers, a mere 4% behind the leader. For perspective, that means Dawson would have had to make about 5 more field goals over his entire career in order to be active leader, something that doesn’t seem all that improbable considering how many times in the last several seasons former head coach Romeo Crennel trotted Dawson out at the end of a half to attempt a 50+ field goal. It’s also worth noting that of the 7 kickers currently ahead of Dawson on field goal accuracy only two, Matt Stover and Nate Kaeding, have played at least 5 seasons.

Dawson, like Cribbs, is in the middle of a multi-year, multi-million dollar contract. Like Cribbs, Dawson probably has perused the various salary databases available and has determined that his salary isn’t keeping pace with his peers. According to the USA Today database, for example, Dawson is the 23rd highest paid kicker/punter in the league from a base salary standpoint. His annual salary on a contract that still has two years to go is around $1 million.

Kaeding and Stover are ahead of Dawson in salary, but not by much. But several others, including Adam Vinatieri, Jason Hanson and Olindo Mare, to name three, are well ahead of Dawson in salary. In each case, Dawson has had the better career, at least when it comes to accuracy. Dawson has had the disadvantage of toiling in obscurity in Cleveland for mostly bad teams and thus hasn’t had the opportunity to kick in really big games, like Vinatieri. But that doesn’t diminish Dawson’s accomplishments. If anything, Dawson has been even more important to his team because he’s often the only thing standing between the team and another shutout.

I’m certain his agent, Neil Cornich, has these and an armload of other statistics to make his case, a case which is easily made. But the broader picture is that this is another contract to be renegotiated, which is why it plays directly into what happens with Cribbs.

If the Browns sit down and renegotiate with Cribbs they can’t avoid a similar discussion with Dawson without alienating him further and vice versa. That doesn’t mean the Browns should draw a line in the sand against renegotiating. It just means that as with most everything else, the situation is far more complicated than just shoveling a few more dollars a player’s way.

**

Finally Braylon Edwards and I have found common ground. It had to happen eventually.

Edwards, talking as if he had another choice, told the media that he really wants to be in Cleveland this season if only to atone for a miserable 2008 season. He’s right, it was miserable.

Edwards’ impromptu press conference was vintage Edwards and what makes him such an enigma. He was well spoken, as usual, and almost humble. He seemed to have a full grasp on the business issues regarding the frequency with which his name was brought up in trade talks. He even took the positive approach by saying that the Browns must really value him to not have essentially given him away.

But bubbling just below the façade of the thoughtful receiver he portrayed, Edwards knows that this is a make or break season for him and he better respond. Otherwise he enters his free agent off season with all the leverage of a Wally Szerbiak.

Frankly, it matters little what Edwards’ motivation might be this season, just so long as he has some. As bad as Derek Anderson was, as bad as the offensive line was and as bad as the defense was, Edwards was the poster child for all that bedeviled the team last season, and for good reason.

His approach in training camp was lackadaisical, to say the least. He exhibited all the passion and commitment of a guy who felt he had already arrived before he even left the station. If he can turn that around, whether motivated by pride or money, the Browns will be a better team automatically.

Edwards as Pro Bowl talent and has exhibited it. He also has a Pro Bowl caliber ego that tends to rob him of reason too often. If he can channel the former and discard the latter, at least for one season, then whoever is behind center will blossom. And if that happens, the applause and cheers will return and suddenly no one will be holding a perceived grudge against him because of his Michigan roots.

**

As the incumbent players begin to test the mettle of the new regime, this week’s question to ponder is which Browns player will be the next to go public with a grievance?

Thursday, May 21, 2009

For most Cleveland sports fans, the problem is that the peaks to be enjoyed are far too low and far too infrequent than the valleys they’re forced to endure. The Cleveland Cavaliers couldn’t find a way to hold on to a 15-point advantage in game one of a seven game series and it becomes an unceremonious punch in the stomach. The Cleveland Indians can’t find a way to hold on to a four-run lead in the ninth inning against Kansas City and it becomes a marker for team mismanagement. Then there are the Cleveland Browns. They can’t find a way to hold on to their most valuable player and it becomes just another day at the office.

No wonder Cleveland fans have a complex. They’ve become the equivalent of family members sitting in a hospital’s critical care waiting room. More often than not, the news is bad. The events of the last few days serve as just another report from the on-call nurse telling them to stand by, the patient isn’t yet out of the woods and may never be.

But let’s try to at least ad context.

When it comes to the Cavaliers, placing faith in LeBron James to find a way to win is hardly the most risky of bets. The Cavs loss on Thursday night, coming the way it did, was dispiriting but hardly crippling. Home court advantage may have been temporarily lost, but as they say in golf, there are still plenty of holes left to play. James’ will to win is far greater than the fans’ sense of dread.

The Indians are a mess, simple as that. Feel free to dream all you want about a remarkable turnaround, but if past is prologue, it will come far too late in the season to do anything more than get your hopes up for next season. The only good news is that for this season, the valley isn’t likely to get much deeper. That would be nearly impossible.

But let’s pause a bit with the Browns. Even when they shouldn’t be making news, they do and even when it should be good it isn’t. The contract squabble with Josh Cribbs took another somewhat unexpected turn with the release of Cribbs’ statement purportedly explaining his side of the situation. In one sense it is dismissed as a negotiating ploy, which it clearly is. But in another sense it is something worth noting because it speaks to a loss of respect for an organization in whom so few have respect these days.

It’s silly to take sides in a contract dispute between wealthy players and ridiculously wealthy owners. The game is always bigger than the players and owners who participate in it and like every other contract dispute in the history of professional sports, this one too shall eventually pass.

That being said, Cribbs’ statement sent a cautionary message to Randy Lerner as well as head coach Eric Managini and general manager George Kokinis that this organization better start standing for something or it will soon fall for anything.

If any member of the current Browns has credibility with the dwindling fan base, it’s Cribbs. He plays hard on every play and has always been willing to take on whatever assignment he’s been given, no matter how ridiculous. When Cribbs starts calling out the owner for treating him like “collateral damage” one has to wonder what impact that will have inside the locker room. Cribbs has essentially laid down the gauntlet by putting his own credibility on the line.

If the Browns don’t renegotiate the contract, you can only expect the situation to escalate and eventually resonate. Cribbs took a preemptive strike at Lerner et. al that either forces them to step up and do the right thing, which, according to Cribbs, is to pay him fairly relative to his unidentified peers, or stare him down and risk alienating the emotional center of the team thereby putting a serious crimp on Mangini’s plan to transform the franchise.

I can’t help wonder, though, why Cribbs has taken it to this level this soon. It’s May. The only leverage point he has right now is to withhold his services from workouts that aren’t contractually required. That’s hardly a stinging rebuke. No one will give this much thought until at least training camp. That’s when the stakes heighten for both sides. If fans of the Browns understand anything at this point it’s the outcome on the field of a team that doesn’t properly prepare.

The other thing I wonder about is the logic underlying Cribbs’ emotional statement. On many levels it doesn’t make sense. Let’s start with the premise. Cribbs is not a restricted free agent but a player one-third of the way through a contract he signed that pays him over $6 million. No one put a gun to his head to sign it. To now claim, as he does, that the contract is one-sided is disingenuous. As I recall, he was all smiles when he originally signed it.

But beyond just this simple point, Cribbs sets up the straw man argument that he shouldn’t be held accountable for breaching his contract since the owners breach contracts all the time. Really? Give me an example. Just one. The reality is that the collective bargaining agreement keeps the owners feet to the fire far more than it does to the players and every meritorious allegation of a breach of contract made by the players has been rectified in binding arbitration.

As I wrote the other day, the truth is that both sides treat player contracts more like guidelines than binding commitments. But when push comes to shove, there is nothing a team can do to get a player to renegotiate his contract if the player chooses not to renegotiate. The team can cut the player, but that’s a hollow threat if the player is truly valuable. If the Browns cut Cribbs, he’d be snapped up in an instant.

When it comes to not honoring contracts, it’s really the players that hold the inglorious history of walking away from their signed commitments. Every year there are handfuls of players in every sport that refuse to honor their signed contracts in order to force their employers into newer more lucrative ones. I’m not making a value judgment on the tactic, just stating a fact.

Besides, it was Cribbs who decided to get into this business in the first place. He can portray himself a knave, but he’s well armed for the battle. His agent may have been born at night, but it wasn’t last night. It’s a fair fight.

Perhaps the biggest flaw in Cribbs’ logic is that he only has 10 or so years to make the most money he can to last him the rest of his life. Being a professional athlete does not carry the implied promise that when your playing career ends you can blissfully retire without ever having to work again. If Cribbs defies the odds and plays until he’s 35, why should he assume that his earnings during his career should be enough to sustain him until he’s 95? If this dispute really is about whether or not Cribbs shouldn’t have to enter real life in his mid-30s without ever having to seek gainful employment again, he’ll lose the fans as quick as he got them on his side.

It’s understandable that Cribbs is upset with what he feels is a lack of integrity by Browns’ management. But it’s not as if Cribbs shouldn’t have seen that coming. Cribbs has been with the team for four seasons and in that time he’s had a front row seat to all manner of dysfunction that has been the Browns. The only surprise in any of this is that Cribbs is surprised.

Ultimately, I blame the agent. Taking your case directly to the media is Negotiation 101 so the fact that Cribbs issued a statement isn’t a surprise. But J.R. Rickert needs to do a far better job of controlling his client than he’s done to this point. Cribbs’ statement, like this column, would probably have been twice as effective if it had been half as long.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Contract disputes in professional sports are like the buzzards returning to Hinckley. They happen every year. This year the dispute season gets off to a bit of a rousing start as Cleveland Browns’ receiver/kick returner/special teams player extraordinaire Josh Cribbs fired a shot across the bow of the good ship Browns just as a new captain begins to settle into his quarters.

It’s easy to get caught up in the emotion of a contract dispute. Fan reaction tends to ebb and flow depending on the team and the player but generally speaking fans tend to take the side of management, believing in the sanctity of the contract, seeing the player as greedy.

Every once in awhile though the plight of a player strikes a chord with the fans. Kellen Winslow? Most fans felt like he got what he deserved when his contract was re-worked downward after his motorcycle accident. They were glad he was traded because he was a contract dispute in the making that no one had the stomach to endure.

With Cribbs, the reaction is and will be far more mixed. Sure, he signed a multi-million dollar contract just two seasons ago and it has for more years to run. But on the other hand he is about the only player on the Browns’ roster who seems to approach each play as if it’s his last. Give him what he deserves.

The more pragmatic way to look at all of these disputes is to treat it like those buzzards in Hinckley; observe from a distance.

Frankly, it’s hard to get too excited one way or the other about a player and his contract. The notion that they are somehow sacrosanct is as quaint as it is unrealistic. Most players, and certainly every agent, treat contracts as mere guidelines. Every good season deserves even more money. Team management tends to do the same thing. When it suits their interests they have no qualms asking a player to “restructure” and implicitly brand that player in the media as disloyal when he doesn’t.

While the dispute between Cribbs and the Browns has all the typical elements, there are some interesting twists that promise to make this an interesting spring and early summer for head coach Eric Mangini and general manager George Kokinis.

Cribbs is a true Horatio Alger character. Plucked from the obscurity of one of the Mid American Conference’s perennially worst teams, Cribbs has risen from an undrafted, un-thought of free agent to a valuable NFL player. He’s gone from earning the league minimum to earning a long-term contract with $2 million guaranteed.

The problem for Cribbs, though, is that his contract, which he just signed two years ago and which runs for four more seasons, is undervalued when compared to similar players in the league. By implication Cribbs blames his former agent, which is why he’s the former agent. But that’s just part of the story. Cribbs signed a club-friendly contract with the Browns because, frankly, he couldn’t believe his good fortune.

Most assuredly his former agent told him the pros and cons of signing such a long term deal, not the least of which is that if kept performing at his current level, he’d quickly become underpaid on a relative basis. Still Cribbs signed it anyway. Life is about choices. It was undoubtedly more money then he had ever seen in his life.

Now Cribbs wants even more. That’s not a criticism, just a statement of fact. His new agent, J.R. Rickert, is presenting the usual argument, that Cribbs has outperformed his contract. It’s the worst argument of all to make. Cribbs didn’t so much outperform his contract as his contract underperformed relative to others in the league. There is a difference. Again, though, the problem is that this was entirely foreseeable and if you’re weighing just the simple equities of the matter based on the arguments presented, Cribbs loses, in a walk.

But the twist here is that Cribbs supposedly was promised a renegotiation of his contract by former general manager Phil Savage. It’s a promise the Browns’ new regime implicitly acknowledges through it’s carefully worded public statement on Monday that no one in the “current” administration made that promise.

Here’s where the equities start tipping in Cribbs’ favor.

The Cleveland Browns are an entity guided on a daily basis by whomever the owner shoves into the various roles. If Savage made that promise, it was on behalf of the Browns and not on behalf of Savage personally. Disclaiming that promise as being made by the previous regime in this context is disingenuous. In another context, it would be unlawful.

Look at it this way. If Savage had announced publicly during the middle of last year’s most miserable of seasons that the team would hold the line on season ticket prices in 2009, you’d expect the Browns to honor that commitment even if it was made by the prior regime. If Kokinis then announced a ticket price increase for 2010 and the public relations department issued a statement saying that no one in the current administration made the previous commitment, as a season ticket holder you’d be pretty upset. Even if the initial commitment didn’t amount to a legally binding contract you’d still feel like you were cheated and rightfully so.

That’s a little of what’s taking place here. Assuming that Cribbs and his agent are telling the truth on this issue, an assumption that seems reasonable given the Browns’ statement, Cribbs has a right to be perturbed. His only recourse is to withhold his services, despite an otherwise binding contract hanging over his head. In Cribbs’ view, he’d only be reacting to an injustice served upon him first. It’s a powerful view.

But making this even more interesting is the final allegation leveled by Rickert and Cribbs. They claim that after Savage left, owner Randy Lerner reiterated the commitment in a phone call to Cribbs. That’s where the announcement by the Browns on Monday really fits in. Lerner essentially denies that it ever took place.

On the surface, it seems like something that is black or white. Either Lerner made the commitment or not and therefore either Lerner or Cribbs is lying. More likely, it’s not black or white. Lerner and Cribbs probably did speak after Savage left. Lerner may have heaped on Cribbs a mountain of platitudes. Cribbs may have brought up his contract, but in general terms. Lerner may have said, in general terms, that the team wants to take care of players like Cribbs.

In other words, it probably was one of those conversations where each took from it what they wanted to hear, kind of like that conversation you had about golfing next weekend instead of visiting her mother.

The more pressing issue for the Browns is one of perception, and not by the fans. Mangini and, to a lesser extent Lerner, need to decide how they want to be viewed by the players. It’s trickier than it seems. You can argue for “doing the right thing” but sometimes the “right thing” for a player and the “right thing” for the team conflict. This could be one of those situations.

Renegotiate Cribbs’ contract and the line will form outside of Kokinis’ office an hour later. Try drawing that line. Stand firm on the Cribbs’ contract and good luck trying to convince other players to sign long-term deals.

One thing seems certain, though. If the Cribbs situation spirals out of control, Mangini and Lerner may win the battle but will lose the war. They will become paycheck administrators that will breed a workforce of paycheck players. The problem with this team since its return is that it has been filled with far too many paycheck players.

Cribbs and his fellow receiver Braylon Edwards provide the perfect point/counterpoint of the debate. Could there be a player with less passion that Edwards or more passion than Cribbs? If the season were on the line, in whose hands would you rather see the ball?

For too long the Browns have been assembled as if it was a game of Fantasy Football. Individuals have been signed or discarded based solely on statistics with little concern for actual performance. It’s fine to have a running back averaging nearly 4 yards a carry, but does he have the desire to score from the one-yard line on third down in a tight game?

Mangini claims that he wants to build a team with players, which is coachspeak for having athletes whose will to win and desire for the game are their most prominent features. Dealing with Cribbs in a way that fairly resolves the issue will go a long way toward determining whether Mangini is serious or just another empty whistle.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Following up just a bit on the latest conventional wisdom when it comes to Cleveland Indians manager Eric Wedge, apparently he too knows when he’s starting to see the writing on the wall. No sooner had his players given him a vote a confidence came the second punch, a vote of confidence from his general manager Mark Shapiro.

Wedge knows he’s in trouble. His team is playing as bad as any Indians team he’s had and more and more fans are calling for him to join Romeo Crennel on the list of formers when it comes to Cleveland coaches. Give Wedge credit though, if he’s going down he’s going down swinging, which is more than can be said for most of the players on the team, content are they to usually watch strike three to blow by them.

Channeling his inner Lou Pinnella, Wedge absolutely blistered his pitching, particularly his bullpen, in the media for squandering a 7-0 lead on Friday night, losing to the Tampa Bay Rays in the most inglorious way possible, a walk-off home run on a 3-2 pitch.

The tirade was so out of character for Wedge it was easily the most refreshing sports moment in Cleveland sports this year, outside, of course, of almost anything the Cavaliers have done. With almost perfect pitch, Wedge let both the fans and his general manager know that he, too, sees what every one else sees and he isn’t happy with the players sitting out in the bullpen night after night, and that goes for Luis Vizcaino, the latest band aid acquired by Shapiro.

One can only imagine how Shapiro reacted to that tirade. Make no mistake about it, though, Shapiro could not have been happy. This wasn’t just Wedge expressing his displeasure with a simple loss. It was Wedge telling Shapiro “get me someone who can throw a damn strike that doesn’t end up on the other side of the wall.” It was the first public fissure in a relationship that until Friday seemed to be symbiotic.

It might be fair to point out that perhaps Wedge had something to do with the loss. Though he had been ejected earlier, Wedge was managing from inside the clubhouse and weirdly called for Vizcaino to start the ninth inning with the score tied. This was “by the book” managing at its worst. Not wanting to supposedly waste closer Kerry Wood in a tie game, Wedge instead gave the ball to a guy that was out of baseball until Shapiro through him a lifeline. Scottie Bailes, you’re next.

But for one day, that is just niggling. The overriding theme is that there is a pulse in the Indians’ dugout. Even if this thing never turns around under Wedge, at least fans now know that for once a coach wearing a Cleveland uniform was fed up with another crappy product he’d been handed and had the courage to say so publicly. Welcome, finally, to the big leagues Eric Wedge. For your sake, hopefully it’s not too late.

**Now for some niggling.

One of the main gripes about Wedge is that he’s generally far too reluctant to make any significant changes hoping instead that players will find their own way out of the darkness.

In this regard it was interesting when Paul Hoynes of the Plain Dealer opined earlier in the week that Wedge’s strategy with Jhonny Peralta is starting to pay off just as it did last season. The premise from Hoynes was that when Peralta was struggling last year, Wedge finally had seen enough and sat him down for a few games. Afterward, Peralta began to find his stroke and stopped playing like a zombie and went on to hit .276! Call Cooperstown. According to Hoynes, the same held true this year as well.

That’s one way to look at it, I suppose, but here’s another. Peralta has a track record of indifference. If it took Wedge 8 weeks into last season to recognize it and react to an ultimately good result, why is it that Wedge didn’t react sooner than last week this season when Peralta was down literally the same path? Peralta has more than proven that he’s a player that needs a swift kick every now and then and Wedge treats it as if that’s news.

Wedge is now facing the same issue with Grady Sizemore. At the moment, there is “talk” about moving him down in the order. How much talk does it take? Sizemore isn’t producing in the leadoff spot and is struggling more than at any point in his short major league career.

No one is suggesting that the Indians give up on Sizemore. He’s a significant piece to this puzzle and will be until he’s a free agent. But what is being suggested is that while Wedge and his brain trust talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk game after game after game after game after game after game, Sizemore’s strike outs become more frequent and his average sinks ever lower.

This is the core of one of Wedge’s main problems as a manager. Ever cautious of developing into a knee-jerk reactionary, he consciously goes in the other direction to the detriment of his team. He waits far too long for problems to resolve on his own. This team could well benefit by some active managing and instead he is content to merely tinker.

It may be tricky, as Hoynes suggested, dealing with a veteran who is struggling, but it’s not impossible. It’s not even that hard, actually, especially if you’re a veteran manager and you’re dealing with an established major leaguer still in a learning mode. But as long as Shapiro and the enablers he’s courted in the local media continue to treat these issues as if they are more intricate than statehouse politics, nothing much will change and the team will continue to founder.

**While Wedge has been reluctant to address the Sizemore issue, at least he’s moving other players around a bit, looking for a spark from somewhere. Peralta, mercifully, has been moved to third base where his lack of range and hustle are less of an issue. Asdrubal Cabrera, one Indian playing with some heart, has been moved to shortstop, at least temporarily, a far more natural position for him. And as out of character as his tirade about the bullpen was, at least as much out of character was Wedge’s decision to play both Matt LaPorta and David Dellucci at the same time on Saturday.

There’s been a spirited debate on the message boards and among some of the writers on this site and in the local media about what exactly is this Indians’ plan with respect to LaPorta and Dellucci. As these things often do in debates where the stakes are small, it’s resulted in its share of bruised hearts and broken rhythms.

Whatever camp you may be in with respect to these two players, the more basic question is whether or not a strategy even exists. On the one hand it sure looks like they are being platooned even if that wasn’t the stated intent at the outset. On the other hand it more looks like there simply is no plan but rather a series of random acts by Wedge, such as putting LaPorta in left while Dellucci is the designated hitter.

It’s hard telling exactly what the fascination is with Dellucci outside of the fact that he’s a veteran player Wedge had dropped in his lap by Shapiro sporting a contract he didn’t much deserve. With LaPorta, one of the team’s prime prospects, the starting premise was that he needed to play every day in Columbus.

Well, that lasted about as long as the starting premise with the bullpen, except it shouldn’t have. LaPorta is essentially a spare part on a major league team that is struggling mightily. He’s not helping much because he hasn’t had much opportunity. Wedge has never been good at figuring out how to work in players in the first place and he’s showing that again with LaPorta. Given that and given what’s taken place, what exactly is the point in keeping him with the Indians?

What makes this all the more interesting is that Wedge says he will work LaPorta in at first base given the supposed glut of outfielders at the big league level. Even with LaPorta’s huge upside as a hitter, putting LaPorta at first base to compete with both Victor Martinez and Ryan Garko makes as little sense as just about everything else. It just trades one glut for another and to what end?

If LaPorta’s at first then that means Martinez is either the designated hitter or behind the plate. If he’s behind the plate, then Kelly Shoppach is sitting. If Wedge does put LaPorta at first then pick a scenario with the remaining players and it doesn’t matter, the Indians are a weaker team for that game.

This is not, by the way, an anti-LaPorta rant. I’d rather see the Indians clear their outfield gut by putting a fork in Dellucci’s career with the Indians in favor of LaPorta. But this seems to be too obvious of a solution on a team that shouldn’t necessarily play for next year right now, but at least ought to have one eye on that.

**

Given Shapiro’s fascination with bullpen reclamation projects, this week’s question to ponder: Who is higher on Shapiro’s speed dial, Jamie Easterly or Victor Cruz?

Monday, May 11, 2009

There are two pretty good markers for when a head coach or a manager is on his way out. The first is when either the owner or the general manager gives you a vote of confidence. When one says it, it’s bad enough. When both do, it’s the kiss of death. Might as well say your goodbyes now. Like Big Pussy in the Sopranos you’re heading out on a boat ride and you won’t be returning.

The other marker, of course, is when your players start defending you in public. The minute you read “it’s not “[fill in the blank]’s” fault, the locker room has been lost. The players know their coach is teetering and ultimately this becomes the final push to convince a reluctant owner or general manager before going in the proverbial other direction.

To this point, Cleveland Indians manager Eric Wedge has received the silent treatment, at least publicly, from both the Dolans and general manager Mark Shapiro. Better than a vote of confidence, I suppose. But as the inevitable thoughts are running through their collective minds about what to do with the manager of the worst team in baseball, they couldn’t have liked hearing both Victor Martinez and Mark DeRosa publicly pretending to pull Wedge off the hook from which his livelihood now hangs.

Martinez couldn’t have been more direct, DeRosa a little less so. But in each case the message was clear, they know their manager is in trouble. If they expected it to make a difference, then they weren’t watching the Browns last season. Each time the self-proclaimed leaders on that team came to the emotional rescue of Romeo Crennel they then went out and just played worse. Look for the Indians’ losing streak to continue.

Martinez says that the problem is a lack of fire and desire. That certainly explains the sleepwalking performance of perennial sleepwalkers like Jhonny Peralta. But does a lack of fire really explain why Ben Francisco can’t hit a cutoff man or why Grady Sizemore now channels Gorman Thomas? Or is there something more fundamental going on?

Managers and head coaches at the professional level like to say that the players should be self-motivated. They know what’s at stake and if they need a fire and brimstone talk to get them sufficiently primed to play their best then they probably don’t deserve to be playing in the major leagues in the first place. There is some logic to that, particularly in baseball. The long season contains so many peaks and valleys that the race often is won by those who remain even keel. It’s been Wedge’s approach since he began his managerial career.

And while I’m not suggesting that Wedge turn into something he’s not in order to publicly show the fans that he does have a pulse, I am suggesting that with this group of players the even keel approach seems to be having the exact opposite impact of its intended effect.

Martinez is right. The players seem almost completely unmotivated by the events of the day. It’s not quite mid-May and they have all the look and swagger of a team that’s 30 games out and it’s September 23rd Here are two quick examples.

Friday night, Cliff Lee was once again pitching well but facing the Indians’ latest nemesis, Justin Verlander. It was the bottom of the eighth inning, two outs and Curtis Granderson was on third. Lee looked to have wriggled out of a mini-jam by inducing Clete Thomas into a routine but somewhat slow rolling ground ball to second. Luis Valbuena, playing second while Asdrubal Cabrera was at short (Peralta had been benched about 10 games too late), couldn’t turn that routine play into an out and the run from third score. The official scorer gave Thomas a hit. It was an error.

When Lee went into the dugout, he was hot, as he should have been. But Lee didn’t confront Valbuena, a recent callup, and neither did Wedge. In fact, moments later that play that cost the team the game was pretty much forgotten and Lee was actually smiling as he leaned over the rail watching his teammates fail to execute for about the 36th straight inning.

What should have been said at that moment was that a team playing good, fundamental baseball makes that play every time. Maybe it was so obvious that it didn’t need to be said. They should have said it anyway. Like a puppy that just wet the carpet, the correction needs to be made at as close to the moment as possible for maximum impact. Instead the opportunity to teach a lesson was lost.

The second came in the second inning of Sunday’s game. There was one out, one run in and the bases loaded. Adam Everett hit a routine sacrifice fly to Francisco in left. Francisco then uncorked a throw that apparently was supposed to be to home plate. Francisco had no chance of getting Magglio Ordonez at the plate. But that didn’t stop Francisco from making the throw anyway.

Of course the throw took catcher Kelly Shoppach up the first base line and allowed both Brandon Inge and Gerald Laird to each move up a base though they were content to remain at second and first, respectively, but for Francisco’s throw. Granderson got the inevitable single and suddenly a two run inning was now a four run inning and the game was effectively over. Happy Mother’s Day. Come back soon. Hope you liked the pink bats.

A play like Francisco’s doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It is the culmination of a lot of smaller mistakes that continue to happen and go uncorrected. If, for example, Valbuena had been appropriately taken to task for his mental mistake on Friday night, might there not be a chance that Francisco is on a higher alert on Sunday? Nothing’s related but everything is.

Martinez and DeRosa can rightly claim that it’s not Wedge making, or actually not making, the plays in the field. Nor is Wedge swinging the bat. But the flaw in that thinking always has been that it suggests that the coaching staff is essentially irrelevant to the process. That just isn’t the truth.

The lack of talent on the Browns aside, one of the biggest issues with them under Crennel was a lack of preparation. Crennel looked almost as clueless on the sidelines to what was going on as the players did between them. It was a culmination of all that had taken place, or actually had not taken place, during the week. Fundamentals weren’t getting emphasized. Players who didn’t deserve it were given too much rope. Crennel paid the price because he should have. The team’s lackluster play was a reflection of the lackluster coaching.

The same thing is revealing itself to be the case with these Indians. Wedge is almost too respectful to the daily struggles that every player has and seems reticent to make much of an issue about them. But at what point is Wedge going to wake up to the fact that Grady Sizemore, for example, has regressed tremendously at the plate? When is Wedge going to wake up to the fact that Peralta has no passion for the sport or that day in and day out his team is often losing for the most basic of reasons?

What fans are being forced to endure from this team is the culmination of a million negligent acts by this coaching staff over the years. It wasn’t any one thing that Wedge or Derek Shelton or Carl Willis did recently that put this team in its current position. It was all the little things they did or fail to do for the last several years. The de-emphasis on the fundamentals. The lack of accountability. In other words, Wedge and his staff haven’t bothered to balance their checkbook for years and now they find the checks they’re currently writing being returned for insufficient funds.

The casual indifference Indians players have toward their jobs is flying under the radar screens of the average fans because they’re distracted with the run by the Cavaliers. But that will end within the next month and pretty soon Shapiro and the Dolans will have to face the same sort of fan reaction that Randy Lerner was facing with the Browns.

It may be too early to completely write off this Indians season, but that’s only if you assume something dramatic will happen to turn this thing on the dime it needs to turn on. Under the current thinking of this organization, it’s just a matter of working harder, as if the middle of the season is the time for that revelation.

The Martinez and DeRosa votes of confidence were just the first step. Shapiro will stand up next. I have the feeling that he was watching the aftermath of the last Browns seasons and knows the inevitable outcome of his own dawdling if it goes on too long. It may be something Shapiro doesn’t really want to face, but given the alternatives in this economy a new voice in the dugout and a new direction starts to look pretty promising.

Friday, May 08, 2009

Watching LeBron James against the Atlanta Hawks on Thursday night reminded me of the statement Bobby Jones once made about Jack Nicklaus, “he plays a game with which I’m not familiar.” Jones’ regarded in his prime as one of the game’s greatest players, could only marvel at Nicklaus. In heaping one of the greatest accolades one superstar could ever bestow on another, Jones’ point was that as good as he was Nicklaus was playing the game at an all together different level than any one else.on the planet.

That’s exactly where James is at the moment. The NBA is filled with great talents. But James is different. He steps on the court and the opposing players already know they’re beat. He’s Tiger Woods winning the U.S. Open by 10 strokes. Everyone else is playing for second place.

At this point there simply are not enough superlatives to describe his play. String together a dozen or so of your favorite adjectives and you still can’t adequately describe his artistry and athleticism. It goes beyond his physical gifts. Like Tiger Woods and Nicklaus before him, James is mentally stronger than anyone else on the court. He knows what the opposition is thinking even before they do and they know it. They also know they can’t contain him let alone stop him. If you’re going to beat the Cavs, the focus has to be on stopping everyone else.

The question I keep asking myself is whether or not Cleveland fans fully comprehend the player that in their midst is the game’s greatest player playing at his best. It’s a difficult concept to grasp, especially in a town like this. The closest Cleveland fans have come to a similar circumstance is when Jim Brown played for the Browns. But he retired 45 years ago. Those memories have more than faded. Cleveland teams have had their share of great players since but only in that rare case have they had the game’s best player in his prime.

James being named MVP recently is just a public confirmation of his current status to the outside world. But as is typical those kinds of awards sometimes trail the actual accomplishments. Just like Woods chasing down Nicklaus’ legacy, the focus on James now is on when, not if, he’ll chase down Michael Jordan’s legacy. Like Woods, James is off to a great start.

If all of this doesn’t translate into a NBA championship this season for the Cavs, that will be a major disappointment. But it won’t diminish what James already has accomplished nor will it impede all that’s left for him to do. James will win a championship, probably several. The chosen ones always do.

**The Cleveland Indians have barely made it through the first week of May and already they’ve had two significant makeovers. Whether that is just general manager Mark Shapiro being proactive or whether he’s panicking almost doesn’t matter. What does is that the Indians team he put together in the lab this past winter isn’t gelling as hoped. And if this latest concoction fares no better it will reverberate long after this season is in the books.

In the offseason, Shapiro said that he had learned some lessons from the previous seasons by acknowledging that his lack of action in the past hurt the Tribe just when it seemed on the cusp of being a real contender. By essentially overestimating the potential of those teams he more or less stood pat in the offseason (last year is a nice example) and assumed that another year of growth by the current crop was all that was needed to move to the next level.

Nice theory. Next.

Though the Indians were at times downright miserable to watch last season, there was growth in the second half that justifiably offered some optimism. That’s the reason that Shapiro allegedly went over budget to fortify the bullpen and the bench, the two areas more than any other that cost the team last year. The early returns haven’t been promising.

Given where this team stands, the question all this naturally begs is whether Shapiro just doesn’t have what it takes to be a successful general manager. One year he stands pat and gets burned. The next he spends more money than seems prudent given the economy and still gets burned. If it’s not incompetence then maybe it’s just bad luck.

Shapiro certainly has his shortcomings. He’s arrogant to a fault. He overemphasizes small gains and minimizes setbacks. He often buries himself in too much research instead of trusting what he actually sees on the field. But for all that, Shapiro is not a bad general manager, not by any reasonable measure anyway.

What fans often forget is how difficult it is to be a general manager in this market in this sport. Baseball doesn’t do its business any favors by letting certain teams run amok financially as others struggle. It also doesn’t help that the business is entrusted to the absolute worst commissioner in the history of organized sports. So powerless is Bud Selig to bring the gravitas of his position down around its stakeholders to goad them into making the fundamental changes necessary to survive and thrive that the sport would be better off if it simply abolished his office and sent him back to Milwaukee.

In other words, even before the first personnel decision gets made in Cleveland, Shapiro or whoever is in that position, is essentially coming to the plate with a 0-2 count. The next factor is the Indians ownership. Whatever their financial wherewithal might be, one thing is crystal clear: the Dolans will not dip into their personal fortunes to run this team. It rises and falls on its various revenues.

That’s not a criticism. The Dolans are prudent businessmen in that sense. But owning a professional sports franchise is sometimes about more than just being prudent. There has to be a little flair to it. You have to take some risks. That’s where the Dolans have always fallen short.

Some would argue, correctly, that the Indians’ current payroll is a risk because there simply is no way that the revenue expected to be generated out of the local economy this year will ever be sufficient to support that payroll. This is true, but payroll isn’t a static concept. If the Indians don’t generate some wins and put themselves into contention in the next 30-45 days, they’ll have no hope of reaching their projected attendance level. That means come July they’ll be cutting payroll faster than General Motors. Count on it.

With all of these obstacles in front of him, it’s a wonder Shapiro can find a way to do much of anything each offseason, at least when it comes to making a meaningful impact. The budget constraints Shapiro faces each season aren’t theoretical. They lead him or whoever sits in that chair to a player acquisition strategy that relies heavily on trying to pick the pockets of other teams’ general managers through trades and trying to find “value” players from the league’s free agent bargain bin. It’s hit or miss and always will be.

Shapiro can talk all he wants about fielding a competitive team each season and he most certainly means it. The reality is that it’s simply not possible. Even when the Indians have good young players, Shapiro can’t make long-term plans because he knows that sooner rather than later their talent will exceed the Indians’ ability to pay them.

It’s frustrating that the Indians aren’t better. It’s frustrating that there aren’t any leaders on this team. And while some of this is clearly Shapiro’s fault given that he is the one making the personnel decisions, it’s also the inevitable outgrowth of a financially constrained team in an economically constrained town playing in a fiscally unmanaged sport.

**

The news that L.A. Dodgers outfielder Manny Ramirez tested positive for a banned substance and now finds himself nearly $7 million poorer and sitting out almost a third of the season was just another reminder of how illegal drugs continue to haunt the game of baseball.

This news came on the heels of a recent roundtable Selig and the commissioners of the other major professional sports had with the Wall Street Journal. Selig, by this point so used to the question that he now answers it in rote terms, was asked about steroid use in baseball. Doing his earnest best he said it wasn’t that he didn’t want to know or that he was in denial for all those years, he just didn’t know. He then broadened the answer to wistfully remind people how easy it is to look back 10 or 15 years later on almost anything and say “you should have known.”

Well, neither the Ramirez issue nor the steroid use of Alex Rodriguez were 10 or 15 years ago but of far more recent vintage, so the usual Bud-speak once again doesn’t withstand even surface level scrutiny. All these issues do is remind everyone how Selig and the union under Donald Fehr have essentially conspired to ruin the sport.

Selig’s oft-repeated mantra that he didn’t know is starting to wear awfully thin as the superstars of the sport continue to crumble around him. Selig’s one true talent is his abject ability to convince himself of anything, reality notwithstanding. Baseball is literally riddled with cheaters and has been for years and Selig can’t discern a pattern?

Meanwhile, every time a story like that of Ramirez comes out Fehr goes into full Dick Cheney mode and hides in a bunker until the initial smoke clears. Eventually he comes out to mutter his oft-repeated mantra about how the union doesn’t condone the use of banned substances and how his group and the owners have worked together to create a strong anti-drug program.

The difference between Selig and Fehr, though, is that Fehr is hardly in denial. He knows that the drug program is a joke and simply doesn’t care. His attitude is and always has been one of allowing the players to get away with almost anything if it raises their salaries. He cares about the good of the game about as much as the Octomom cares about bad publicity.

As for Ramirez, he is now and forevermore branded as a cheater and deservedly so. He was a certain Hall of Famer until this. He may still get there but there always will be a question of the legitimacy of his statistics, just likethose of Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire. This situation isn’t just another episode in the long running series “Manny being Manny.” It is another episode in the equally long but even more sad series “Cheaters Like Us.”

Ramirez’s official press release reads like something crafted by call center workers in Sri Lanka but makes far less sense. It’s possible that Ramirez really wasn’t trying to mask steroid use but that his doctor prescribed a female fertility drug for him because he was having trouble ovulating. I’d hate to think that Ramirez was really a male impersonator all these years, but then again has anyone actually ever seen him naked?

The most telling aspect of Ramirez’s half-hearted apology is the simple fact that he isn’t appealing his suspension. That speaks volumes about his level of culpability. But then again maybe he’s learning the lessons from the well-worn paths of the other superstars before him. Admit and move on, like Andy Pettite, and you’ll get through it sooner. Protest too loudly, like Roger Clemens, and the story never ends.

When Ramirez had difficulty getting a long-term contract this past off season and the Dodgers were the only team bidding for his services, the economy looked like the culprit. Maybe Selig is so clueless that he couldn’t tell, but it certainly looks like a lot of general managers had an idea what was really up.

**

This week’s question to ponder is probably the same one Bud Selig is probably asking himself: Who is the next baseball superstar to be linked to steroids?

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

As the Cleveland Indians continue their initial tour of the American League like a piece of wood adrift in Lake Erie, manager Eric Wedge claims he’s starting to see a gleam. Ok, he didn’t quite invoke the spirit of Marty Schottenheimer, but he is in his full Pollyanna mode when he recently said, essentially, that but for the games his team lost, they were really close to winning.

Maybe it’s just a matter of perspective. The Indians’ 9-7 victory against Toronto on Tuesday was notable not for the rare win but for laying out publicly why Wedge, ever the optimist, is going to be challenged the rest of the way as he searches for the bright spots that others can’t see.

Optimistically, Tuesday’s game demonstrated that the Indians can be a good team, or at least a team that can be good occasionally. But like that car in the neighbor’s garage that is perpetually being worked on, to this point it runs only long enough to be shown off around the neighborhood. It clearly isn’t highway-ready, at least without some additional tuning.

Realistically, Tuesday’s game demonstrated that this team needs more than a new clutch plate and a new set of shocks. It is a team not just lacking leaders but an identity. If it’s true, and it is, that a team takes on the personality of its manager, then that adequately explains its rather bland approach to the game. Playing at times just well enough to not embarrass, the team seems too bogged down with underachievers seemingly going through the motions, which is as apt a description as exits for its poster child, shortstop Jhonny Peralta. When you couple this with the occasional managerial blunders you get a team playing as if they’re stuck in the mud somewhere in the swamps of Jersey.

The usual disclaimers aside about this being a long season and all, the most telling thing about this team is the fact that it’s longest win streak thus far is 2-games.

Giving due respect for the game’s difficulty, undoubtedly no player can avoid the low tides in a season. There will be times when a hitter will be lost at the plate and others when the ball looks as big as a beach ball. Pitchers go through similar rhythms. One day every pitch is at a batter’s knees and painting the inside corner. The next, every curve hangs there as if suspended by a string just waiting to be hit 500 feet, usually with two runners on. Sometimes there are group slumps and sometimes every batter turns into Manny Ramierez.

In that sense, placing emphasis on any game probably is a bit unfair. Still, there are always a few games each year that serve as a microcosm and Tuesday’s game was this season’s first. The win notwithstanding, it will be seen as a far bigger success if it convinces general manager Mark Shapiro that there are fundamental ingredients missing from this team.

In no particular order, the Indians spent most of the game being fooled by Brian Tallet, a former top prospect with the Indians whose career has mostly been sidetracked by injuries. He now pitches long relief and even then he hasn’t been all that effective. Yet there he was, pressed into a start, mystifying Cleveland hitters as if they were facing Syd Finch for the first time.

If you weren’t watching the game and just saw the box score, it may have looked like Tallet was throwing a decent game. If you watched, you had no such allusions. Somewhere around the 5th or 6th inning, when Tallet was still flirting with a no hitter, announcer Rick Manning was spot on when he said that Justin Verlander may have had no-hit stuff on Sunday against the Indians, but Tallet certainly did not. Tallet was walking batters and hit another. He wasn’t dominating hitters and his control was just average. All he really was doing was putting hittable pitches past a team that did everything but yawn as they approached home plate like so many others already this season.

Until Tallet tired in the 7th inning, you would have trouble finding a team less connected to that game than the guys wearing Cleveland jerseys. Even Grady Sizemore, the one player who almost always seems to be playing full out, looked like he wanted to be anywhere other than at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.

Meanwhile, Indians pitcher Fausto Carmona was doing his part, just barely, to keep his team in the game. He was pitching well early but demonstrated again late that he has difficulty pitching with the lead. More broadly, while the Carmona of this season is an improvement over last season, he hardly looks like the pitcher of two seasons ago. At the moment, he seems so mechanical in his approach that you can almost see the thought balloons above his head before he pitches. “Keep ball down and away.” “Get ahead of hitter.” “Don’t make another mistake.” Either pitching coach Carl Willis has Carmona’s head filled with too much information or Carmona is having trouble adjusting to a league that has adjusted to him. Whatever it is, Carmona hardly looks fluid or natural. It’s why he hasn’t been effective.

But despite these two circumstances, the real markers for this game and this team were the two signature moments of the game: Peralta’s at bat in the 7th inning and 9th inning at bat by the Blue Jays’ Jose Bautista.

Peralta, hitting barely above .200 before the game, was called out on strikes to lead off the 7th inning, sinking his average even lower. He ended the evening 0-5. What was most notable though was his complete indifference at the plate, as if making an effort wasn’t in his job description. When Tallet’s final pitch to Peralta in the 7th hit the inside of the plate, Peralta looked bored by the whole thing. He gave a perfunctory glance back to the home plate umpire as if to say “is it time for Wapner?” Clearly he was in no position or mood to argue. It’s a moment that deserved to get him benched for a week. Instead Wedge trotted him right back out there secure in the belief that doing the same thing in the same way eventually would lead to a different result.

If Peralta really is trying, despite all evidence to the contrary, then what he needs more than anything else is a body language coach. Right now he’s telling everyone watching that he’d rather be in the clubhouse playing ping-pong. Move Asdrubal Cabrera to short for a few weeks, put Josh Barfield at second and let Peralta spend some time on the bench next to Jamey Carroll learning what it means to feel lucky you’re in the major leagues.

The second signature moment came with two and two out in the bottom of the 9th and the Indians with what turned out to be a precarious 6-4 lead. Reliever Kerry Wood was on the mound and actually had Bautista at 0-2. But Bautista got the count back to 2-2 and then deposited the ball in front of Barfield who, in the ninth inning of a game, had been put into left field by Wedge. Did I mention that it was Barfield’s first time ever playing the outfield? Did I have to?

In that moment, all that has gone wrong for the Indians this season did go wrong. You can fault Barfield for not catching the ball or fault the guy who put him in a position to fail in the first place. Through a series of questionable strategic calls Wedge overworked the roster in that way he usually does. While a case could be made for each move he made, that’s inherently the problem. After seven years, fans are still left to make sense of the individual moves being made while the overall effect ends up being the same.

First, Wedge decided that putting Matt LaPorta in a position to fail in the 9th inning of a game so early in his major league career was too much to handle. Maybe that’s right, but on the other hand, if that’s really the case then LaPorta needs to be sent back to Columbus. True, LaPorta has only one hit since he was called up, thereby justifying to some extent Wedge’s concern, but it just happened to be a 2-run homer earlier in the game. Moreover, it’s not as if he looks overmatched at the plate, or, more accurately, any more over matched than anyone else on the roster.

What made the decision to pinch hit Dellucci for LaPorta in that circumstance is that it carried an implied second move. Once Dellucci got on base, Wedge almost had to pinch run for him, given Dellucci’s recovery from a calf injury. That’s how Barfield ended up playing the outfield for the first time in his career.

As it happened, Barfield ended up helping the team mount another comeback in a game that featured plenty. That comeback fortunately culminated with the 3-run 12th inning and, ultimately, the victory. But the victory is almost beside the point. It wasn’t a gritty victory gutted out. It was a stroke of luck and an escape. Over time, it’s a formula that will result in far more defeats than victories.

The sad truth of the moment is that a team that went into the season with such high hopes looks as if it’s playing out the string and it’s not even Memorial Day. Substitute the words “first day of fall” for “Memorial Day” in the previous sentence and it also describes the Browns of last season. In other words, the Indians season is giving beleaguered Browns fans a real sense of déjà vu.

If Shapiro thinks that there’s enough talent on this team to really compete, then the finger of blame is rightly pointed at the manager for not wringing the talent out of the roster he was given. If Wedge thinks that the talent isn’t as good as advertised, then the finger of blame is rightly pointed at the general manager for again misreading the players he acquired. But as those two go about trying to figure out which way is which, the fans already know that both things are true. This team needs players who can actually achieve at their potential and a manager who can make that happen.

Friday, May 01, 2009

I liked The Cleveland Fan’s Jerry Roche’s optimistic take on the Indians and how it’s still too early to consider this year as just another installment of the series “Lost.” But sometimes the problem with always looking on the bright side is that you underestimate the size of the approaching iceberg.

Whether it’s too early in the season to get a full read on this team is a debatable point for which there is no right answer. What’s not debatable is the number of warning signs being given off. First and foremost, as Jerry mentions, is the leadership void. It’s a little troubling when the manager admits that the players aren’t completely responding to his leadership.

That’s not to misstate the context of manager Eric Wedge’s remarks. He was certainly talking about the inherent parenting that teammates do for each other. Indeed, one of the reasons the Cleveland Cavaliers are such a force is their incredible team unity that stems from the overwhelming leadership provided by one of the youngest players on the team, LeBron James. Every one on the team respects coach Mike Brown’s role, but James can say things to his colleagues that Brown cannot. It helps, too, that James holds himself to the highest of standards. He doesn’t ask more than he would expect of himself.

In that context, Wedge is absolutely correct. Still, it’s rather stunning that Wedge is griping this early in the season that the players aren’t much listening to him or anyone else. Actually, it’s not that stunning. Look at how they’re performing. In that sense, if someone doesn’t step forward soon past results will be completely indicative of future performance and fans will literally counting the days until Browns’ training camp opens.

Beyond just a vast leadership void, the Indians are throwing up all sorts of other red flares left and right. The infield play has been ragged. Mark DeRosa is either having trouble adjusting to the American League or he’s just not a reliable every day player. We can take the former view for now but hopefully someone in the Indians’ front office is seriously considering the latter view as well.

The bullpen remains puzzling, and that’s being kind. The Indians are now well into their second straight season where both Rafael Perez and Rafael Bentancort are making 2007 seem more like an anomaly. Put it this way, if this were the Browns 2009 edition and wide receiver Braylon Edwards continued where he left off last season, no one’s going to even remember his Pro Bowl season of 2007. Perez and Bentancort are treading in the same territory.

While closer Kerry Wood has been shaky as of late, some of it clearly is attributable to the lack of work. The Indians at the moment aren’t creating a lot of save opportunities. But the one thing Wood is doing though is justifying his contract, at least when it comes to the notion that the money might have been spent better elsewhere in favor of allowing Jensen Lewis to close. All Lewis has done this year is shown that the rest of the league has caught up with him. If he doesn’t start making some adjustments soon that allow him to keep the ball in the park, he’ll be joining Vinnie Chulk in mop up duty.

This season may not yet be “Lost” but it is venturing ever closer to “24” territory with Wedge reluctantly playing the part of Jack Bauer. Nearly every game features enough intrigue and enough twists and turns that at times it seems like it’s being controlled by some shadowy organization that’s pulling the strings for their own profit and amusement.

Wedge hasn’t set up any perimeters that I know of, at least not yet anyway, and to my knowledge hasn’t used a live lamp cord and a damp rag to shock his troops into playing better. But in getting thrown out the other night, he yelled at least two seasons’ worth of “dammits” in the process. Jack would surely be proud.

This season may not be in its 24th hour just yet, but too often it does feel like torture and I’m starting to wonder loudly whether Wedge really can save the day this time. So are many others.

**

If you haven’t had a chance to watch the Ohio State Buckeye’s spring football game, do yourself a favor and catch it the next time it is run on The Big Ten Network. If nothing else, it provides some affirmation that within close proximity to Cleveland is a football team that’s actually run competently.

The most interesting aspect of the game, of course, was the play of quarterback Terrelle Pryor. Whether by direction or instinct, probably both, Pryor threw first, ran second. It paid off. Pryor threw very effectively throughout. It’s clear that the game has slowed down for him as his ability to read the defense has increased.

Probably the most impressive throw came with just seconds left in the second quarter. Pryor threw deep, across the field and to the sideline to receiver Ray Small. It was crisply thrown, accurate and because of a few nifty moves by Small resulted in a touchdown. But what the throw signaled more than anything else is that Pryor has a strong arm.

Actually, the throw signaled something far greater. Pryor absolutely made the right decision to attend Ohio State and learn under coach Jim Tressel instead of putting his future in the hands of Michigan’s Rich Rodriguez. At the end of the spring game, former Buckeye’s linebacker Bobby Carpenter, playing the role of sideline reporter but not nearly as well as Erin Andrews, asked Pryor about his performance. In addition to the usual “player speak,” Pryor made it clear that he’s a “quarterback who can run.”

That statement couldn’t have resonated any more loudly. It would be fascinating to see how Pryor would have performed in Michigan’s spring game this year had he been a Wolverine. There is no question that Rodriguez would have turned him into another Patrick White. In that context it’s hard to imagine Pryor saying that he’s a quarterback who can run. To Rodriguez, Pryor would always have been a runner who has to throw occasionally and hence a far less complete player.

Under Tressel, Pryor is developing well, though he isn’t nearly a finished product. Despite some strong throws it was hard to miss his somewhat unorthodox throwing motion however. Pryor doesn’t exactly short-arm the ball, but his release point seemed to be almost at shoulder level. Even with his height (Pryor is 6’6”), low throws have a tendency to get knocked down at the line of scrimmage.

On the other hand, it could have been more an illusion than anything else. None of Pryor’s passes actually did get knocked down. But it still seems like his release point should be at least at ear level. I suspect his mechanics will continue to improve. He already seems far better than the player who finished last season.

The real question mark about this team is its youth. With the loss of so many starters it’s hard to get a read on this team right now. But with the game against Toledo being played in Cleveland, the Buckeyes have essentially 8 home games this season, which is a huge advantage. Playing an even bigger role, though, will be the leadership Pryor is able to demonstrate. He may only be a sophomore, but his teammates understand that Pryor is special. He knows it, too.

If Pryor wants to live up to the hype, he’ll need to be like LeBron James and Tiger Woods, two similarly gifted athletes who used those gifts as a reason to work harder, not to coast. The problem sometimes with prodigies is that they can be lazy. When things come too easily, they tend to relax and allow lesser but harder working talents to surpass them.

I don’t have a feel yet for how hard Pryor works. Tressel says Pryor is working extremely hard and there has been visible progress. On the other hand Tressel would say that Pryor is working hard even if he felt privately that it wasn’t completely accurate. The spring game did feature a much different and far more confident Pryor. That’s clearly the result of hard work. If he wants to be the leader of this team, and he wants to get to the level that his inherent gifts point to, he’ll have to work even harder. And if he really wants to be like James and Woods, he’s going to have to work harder than anyone in the game. They do.

**

It wouldn’t be a surprise if Browns head coach Eric Mangini eventually puts up a “under construction” sign outside the team’s Berea complex. With all of the rebuilding that’s taking place the one thing that is certain is that the 2009 version will bear little resemblance to the 2008 version. Whether that translates into more wins remains to be seen, obviously.

One of the things that happens when a team undergoes such upheaval is that, naturally, there are few leaders at the ready. The Browns have a natural leader in quarterback Brady Quinn but unless or until a commitment is made to him, it will be awfully hard, not to mention presumptuous for Quinn to take the reigns. Shaun Rogers also is a natural leader as well. The problem is that he and the head coach aren’t exactly Facebook friends at the moment. Like the Indians, the Browns have a leadership void at the moment.

Mangini has gotten a fair share of criticism over the number of former Jets that now within the ranks of the Browns. But part of that has to do with trying to establish a leadership structure. These players presumably know Mangini the best. Naturally the others will look to them as the default when tea leaves need to be read. At least that’s Mangini’s hope.

The downside with salting the roster this way is that some will look at them as shills for management if not outright spies. Too many former players can breed a level of mistrust that isn’t healthy either. These former Jets will have a difficult line to straddle and their success as leaders in the early stages of the team will depend mightily on their ability to properly navigate.

To a certain extent, it’s the same model former head coach Romeo Crennel utilized when he brought in players like Ted Washington and Willie McGinest. But that didn’t work that well. The recurring problem under Crennel wasn’t a lack of respect for him by the players or even the lack of leadership. It was simply the fact that despite these advantages the players simply didn’t respond to him. It doesn’t mean it won’t work differently for Mangini, but the Browns have been down this road before and no that success isn’t a foregone conclusion.

Mangini is never going to be the player-friendly coach that Crennel was, but that will probably be to his benefit more than anything else. But if he’s going to be more successful than his predecessor, it will be absolutely imperative that he allow the natural leaders to emerge and do their jobs and not try to force the issue. As Mangini’s counterpart Wedge is finding out with the Indians, a team devoid of leaders is like a boat without a rudder. It may still putter along just find but it will be an accident if it ever makes it to its destination. The last thing this town needs is still another Browns’ ship stranded on the rocks.

**

Speaking of a lack of leadership on the Indians, there wasn’t much fanfare about Travis Hafner going back on the disabled list. But it does lead to this week’s question to ponder: How much more do you think Hafner will even play this season?